Mark Zuckerberg Says Facebook Won’t Censor Politicians (After Censoring Politicians)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a speech at Georgetown University yesterday in which he said the messages of politicians should not be censored on his platform — even though multiple conservative politicians remain blacklisted on Facebook.

“We think people should be able to hear what politicians have to say,” said Zuckerberg. “I don’t think it’s right for tech companies to censor politicians in a democracy.”

However, more than one politician is still banned on Zuckerberg’s social network.

Laura Loomer, a Republican congressional candidate in Florida, was blacklisted by Facebook in May this year, with the social network branding her a “dangerous” individual. Her campaign is currently waging a defamation lawsuit against the tech company over the “dangerous” label, and recently filed an opposition to Facebook’s motion to dismiss the case.

Earlier in the year, Facebook also banned British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, who went on to become a candidate for the UK Independence Party in the European Parliamentary elections last year (EXCLUSIVE: Facebook ‘Hate Agents’ List Includes British Candidates For European Election).

Zuckerberg did not mention either of these high-profile bans during his speech at Georgetown. Not did he mention the platform’s decision, in 2018, not to run a series of Republican and pro-Trump ads for the midterm elections of that year, including an ad from the Trump campaign addressing crime and illegal immigration.

In his speech, Zuckerberg indicated that he would not ban political ads in the future. “Banning political ads favors incumbents and whoever the media chooses to cover,” he said.

“While I certainly worry about erosion of truth, I don’t want to live in a world where people can only post content that tech companies judge to be true.”

The Facebook CEO’s comments come amid mounting pressure from Democrats, including the DNC, Elizabeth Warren, and the Biden campaign, to censor material from the Trump campaign drawing attention to corruption allegations against the former Vice President related to his dealings with the Ukrainian government.

Facebook has, so far, refused to cave in to this pressure.